Sustainability Commission

City of Sunnyvale Meeting Minutes - Final Sustainability Commission Monday, March 21, 2016 7:00 PM West Conference Room, City Hall, 456 W. Olive Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94086 CALL TO ORDER Chair Paton called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. in the West Conference Room. SALUTE TO THE FLAG Chair Paton led the salute to the flag. ROLL CALL Present: 7 - Chair Bruce Paton Vice Chair Amit Srivastava Commissioner Gerald Glaser Commissioner Brian Glazebrook Commissioner Dan Hafeman Commissioner Petya Kisyova Commissioner Steven Zornetzer Commissioner Hafeman arrived at 7:06 p.m. Commissioner Glazebrook arrived at 7:10 p.m. Council Liaison – Jim Davis (absent) PRESENTATION 1 16-0296 PRESENTATION - Water Pollution Control Plant Capital Improvement Plan Update John Stufflebean, Director of the Environmental Services Department, provided an overview of the City’s Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) Master Plan. This included the proposed alternatives for updating the primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment processes; updates on funding status; the proposed timeline for implementation of the upgrades; and opportunities for increasing recycled water use in Sunnyvale. City of Sunnyvale Page 1 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final March 21, 2016 ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None. CONSENT CALENDAR 2 16-0294 Approve the Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes of February 16, 2016 Commissioner Hafeman moved and Commissioner Glazebrook seconded a motion to approve the February 16, 2016 meeting minutes as submitted. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 4 - Chair Paton Commissioner Glazebrook Commissioner Hafeman Commissioner Kisyova No: 0 Abstain: 3 - Vice Chair Srivastava Commissioner Glaser Commissioner Zornetzer Vice Chair Srivastava and Commissioner Zornetzer abstained as they were not present at the February meeting. Commissioner Glaser abstained as he noted that the minutes of the February 16, 2016 meeting did not reflect his comments to staff regarding the recommended change to CAP measure OVT-1.7. Commissioner Glaser did not proposed a revision to the minutes because he planned to raise the issue again during the CAP Report item on this evening’s Commission agenda. PUBLIC HEARINGS/GENERAL BUSINESS 3 16-0295 Discussion and Possible Action: Climate Action Plan Biennial Report 2016 Elaine Marshall, Environmental Programs Manager, and Nupur Hiremath, Sustainability Coordinator, presented key highlights from the CAP Biennial Progress Report 2016. The presentation included a review of 2014 community-wide greenhouse gas emissions relative to state-recommended targets and to the 2008 baseline; progress on CAP implementation; key CAP initiatives including items scheduled for implementation in the next two-year cycle; and staff City of Sunnyvale Page 2 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final March 21, 2016 draft recommendations to Council. Commissioner Kisyova asked for additional details on the City’s implementation efforts related to CALGreen and green building policy updates. She expressed concern that the City will always be lagging by 1-2 years regarding green building code development and behind leading cities, such as Palo Alto, who started work evaluating opportunities for advancing green building policies in 2015. Elaine Marshall clarified that Community Development Department (CDD) staff is scheduled to update the City’s green building code in 2017, which is consistent with the CAP Work Plan 2020. CDD staff anticipates that this effort will entail looking at the updates to CALGreen as well as examining where the City would want to go with Zero Net Energy building policies. Commissioner Kisyova explained that the State’s updated green building codes will be published later in 2016 and will go into effect starting January 1, 2017, and that waiting until 2017 to review the City’s green building code would be too late. Melody Tovar noted that CDD staff recognized that the 2017 update would be a significant level effort. She noted that the sustainability staff would convey Commissioner Kisyova’s feedback to CDD staff, clarify with them the exact timeline of anticipated updates, and provide clarification to the Commission at a future date. Commissioner Kisyova also noted that the study issue CDD 16-09 was rejected noting that the update would be made in 2016, but staff is now noting that the updates would be completed in 2017. Sustainability staff will revisit the staff notes from the Study Issue workshop and reconcile the dates in discussion with CDD staff. The Commission asked clarification questions and provided specific feedback on the report, including the need for an executive summary and for additional details on proposed adaptation-related efforts. Among other changes, the Commission requested that staff include additional analysis of the data, specifically, the identification of drivers of GHG reductions from baseline to 2014 and how other factors (such as population and economic development) may offset efforts to reduce GHG emissions, possibly in visual form. The Commission agreed that future reports should highlight the effects of turning different knobs and, therefore, which knobs can be influenced to reduce the City’s GHG emissions. The Commission also discussed the implications of the 2-year time lag between reported data and the development of CAP biennial progress reports. Commissioner Kisyova noted that the time lag would mean that the City is always behind schedule in truly understanding what CAP-related accomplishments were. Other Commissioners noted that the time lag was inevitable but despite that, reporting data would be valuable in assessing performance and making subsequent decisions. City of Sunnyvale Page 3 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final March 21, 2016 Commissioner Kisyova noted that the report does little to provide the big picture implications of CAP implementation and fails to outline what high level changes are needed to reach the state-recommended targets sooner. Other Commissioners acknowledged that the CAP Biennial Progress Report for 2016 is a baseline report that updates the GHG emissions inventories and reports on CAP progress, and that trends may not be obvious within a 2-year period after CAP adoption. They agreed that future CAP biennial progress reports should include a greater discussion of what revisions are needed to the CAP to support accelerated achievement of GHG reduction targets. Chair Paton opened the Public Hearing. Barbara Fukumoto, Sunnyvale resident, suggested additional changes to the CAP and provided comments on how the City may consider revising its goals and GHG reduction targets. Chair Paton closed the Public Hearing. The Commission discussed the proposed changes to CAP actions, asking for clarification from staff as needed. For CAP action EC-2.3, Commissioner Glaser noted that the action as originally written was not about enforcing the green building updates to remodels, but rather about providing incentives for remodels to adhere to higher green building standards. As the rationale for the proposed change seemed inconsistent with the action, Commissioner Glaser recommended rejecting the proposed change. For CAP action EC-4.1, rather than deleting the action, Commissioner Glazebrook recommended replacing AB 1103 with AB 802, a state regulation that has already been published, although the implementation details are still being worked out. The Commission agreed that a CAP action that required buildings to examine their energy use was a good initial effort to reducing energy consumption and improving energy efficiency. For CAP action OVT-1.8, Commissioner Glaser clarified that the intent of the CAP action was to change the City’s infrastructure to accommodate neighborhood electric vehicles (NEVs) which have a lighter footprint. Commissioner Glaser stated that not supporting this action as originally written was the equivalent of not supporting bicycle lane development because there are not enough bicyclists to fill the lanes. The staff proposed change makes the CAP action measurable but does not reflect the intent of the CAP action. City of Sunnyvale Page 4 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final March 21, 2016 Commissioner Glaser moved, and Commissioner Glazebrook seconded, a motion that the Commission recommend that Council: (1) accept the CAP Biennial Progress Report 2016, subject to the comments provided during the meeting; (2) accept the proposed changes to the CAP, subject to the following modifications: (a) reject the proposed changes to CAP measures EC-2.3 and OVT-1.8; (b) amend (rather than delete) CAP measure EC-4.1 to reflect Assembly Bill 802 (AB 802) as the replacement for AB 1103; and (3) recommend that subsequent CAP biennial reports include additional analysis on what efforts are working versus those that are not working. Vice Chair Srivastava offered a friendly amendment to add an Executive Summary to the report that synthesizes the data succinctly. Commissioner Glaser accepted the friendly amendment. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 6 - Chair Paton Vice Chair Srivastava Commissioner Glaser Commissioner Glazebrook Commissioner Hafeman Commissioner Zornetzer No: 0 Abstain: 1 - Commissioner Kisyova Commissioner Kisyova abstained as she noted she could not vote to accept the report unless her previously stated concerns regarding the lack of a big picture summary, discussion of future goals, and the time lag in reporting data were addressed. 4 16-0293 Approval of Sustainability Commission 2016 Master Work Plan The Commission added an item to develop recommendations to Council for making adjustments to the CAP into the 2016 Master Work Plan. Commissioner Hafeman moved, and Commissioner Glazebrook seconded, a motion to approve the Sustainability Commission’s 2016 Master Work Plan: City of Sunnyvale Page 5 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final March 21, 2016 Yes: 7 - Chair Paton Vice Chair Srivastava Commissioner Glaser Commissioner Glazebrook Commissioner Hafeman Commissioner Kisyova Commissioner Zornetzer No: 0 STANDING ITEM: CONSIDERATION OF POTENTIAL STUDY ISSUES None. NON-AGENDA ITEMS & COMMENTS -Commissioner Comments The Commission welcomed new Commissioner Steven Zornetzer, who introduced himself and provided some details of his background and involvement in sustainability efforts. Commissioner Hafeman cited the sale of a building behind Raynor Park to the Stratford School as an example of the City inevitably contributing to increasing vehicle miles traveled, by allowing the Stratford School (a predominantly car-commute school) to expand its operations. He noted that the City should be considering the CAP as a part of any action. Commissioner Kisyova reported that the El Camino Real (ECR) Plan Advisory Committee was starting to draft guiding principles for ECR development. She noted that the current consultant is recommending maintaining existing car dealerships and even adding large furniture stores along ECR, which would greatly affect vehicle use along this corridor. The next meeting will be held in April 2016. -Staff Comments Melody Tovar provided a brief update on the progress made towards establishing the Community Choice Energy (CCE) program. The first meeting of the Board of Directors for the Silicon Valley Clean Energy Authority will be held on April 13, 2016, at which all Directors and the alternate Directors (from all 12 participating jurisdictions) will take their oath of office. The City Council has appointed Councilmember Jim Griffith as the Director representing Sunnyvale, and Councilmember Tara Martin-Milius as the alternate. City of Sunnyvale Page 6 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final March 21, 2016 INFORMATION ONLY REPORTS/ITEMS None. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 10:23 pm. City of Sunnyvale Page 7